Nomadic-ERE Year 5 - Wanderlust Prevails

[2Birds1Stone]

I found it very hard to readjust back to being in the office today after 9 days away.

So much so, that I worked from 7:30 till about 1 PM, then ran to get groceries and finishing the day from the backyard. Something about sitting in the sun, sipping a home brewed iced coffee, and listening to tunes while digging myself out of the ol' inbox. Beats the cubicles and mindless banter between my peers and higher ups.

It's definitely getting noticeably harder to conform to office "norms" as the FU$ pile grows.

People who are FI need to be careful that their employer doesn't realize they don't need the job =P

[Frugalchicos]

“People who are FI need to be careful that their employer doesn't realize they don't need the job”

Very true...sometimes I need to remind myself I have to take my job more “seriously”...especially when I day dream about my boss’ face when I handle my resigantion in less than 2 years . Having options feels amazing

[2Birds1Stone]

Yea, it's a struggle haha. Any time I feel anxiety or stress about work, I remind myself that I am completely FI if I move to Poland or SE Asia right now.

Today I am working from home. Started the day by getting up at 5 AM, meeting a friend by 6 for a 6.2 mile run w/ 700 feet of elevation gain, fairly slow with a 1:06 finish. Was definitely feeling the MTB ride I did on Sunday morning, which was an ass kicker after not riding for almost two weeks.

Answered email and did some research from the backyard for 2 hours while listening to the birds and drinking my coffee. I'll have a super productive next 4 hours, then I plan on taking a break from 2-4 PM to watch the World Cup match, which will be tricky because I'm on an internal conference call from 3-4 =P.

In the afternoon a walk, maybe a swim at the town pool, and then BBQing some burgers for dinner.

I'm trying to limit my time spent on work related tasks or office time to 30-50 hours a week, depending on what is going on in my life right now. I think that's a fairly good balance considering I get to work from home about 50% of the time when I'm not traveling. Out of all of the careers I could have chosen, I did alright in the grand scheme of things.

[2Birds1Stone]

Well, this week turned out to be pretty amazing. I worked from the office 2 days, 3 days from home. Managed to get 2 MTB rides, 6.2 mile run, 2 hours of beach VB, 15 miles of walking, and 3 one hour weightlifting sessions in. All of these are extremely enjoyable activities to me, and a big reason why I can't imagine how someone who is ERE'd or retired complain about being bored.

On top of these, I would love to have more time to swim a few times a week, learn how to sail, volunteer a bit, and maybe take on a few other mentally stimulating and low cost hobbies to balance out the physical ones.

We've talked more about how we will execute our plan over the next few years. While things change, we have a pretty good idea. There are a couple of things that have to pan out with work, but they are mostly within our control. It looks like she will be able to join me for ~20 days in Poland in 2019, which is motivating her to earn/save more money between now and then. I'll be off for 4 months at that time, and spend an extra 3-4 weeks there with family. When I come back to the US, I'll spend a lot of time on all of those things mentioned in my second sentence of this post, as well as exploring some new hobbies. Then we are both taking 9-12 months off in June of 2020.......after that? TBD

Have a great weekend =)

ETA: Intermittent fasting has been going really well. I'm down ~10 lbs since June 14th, and am shooting for another 15.

[classical_Liberal]

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[2Birds1Stone]

Woah

I'm typing this using only my right hand and left middle and pointer fingers.

You see, today I went for a mountain bike ride and took a really nasty spill. Doing a double black diamond section I came around a sharp upward bend with a jagged piece of concrete slab sticking out. The angle my wheel hit the concrete, cause my bike to stop instantly, and myself clipped in to the pedals head first over the handlebars with the bike landing on top of me into rocks and trees.

I banged up and gashed my knee, bruised hip, bruised stomach, gashed my forearm, and crushed/sliced my fingertips on my left thumb, ring finger, and pinky.

I'm lucky it wasn't worst. I could have easily broken something, or even worse.....

@c_l I can't wait either!

IF has been good on my wallet. No purchasing convenience foods on the way to the office or while running around NYC because I forgot to pack a lunch or eat breakfast. I'm down another 4 lbs for a total of 14.

[trailblazer]

What is your IF routine? When do you eat, how much etc.?

[2Birds1Stone]

I eat from 12-8. Roughly 20% deficit based on my Garmin watch estimates for a day.

The watch uses my baseline assumed burn (2400 calories in a sedentary day), and adds all of the walking, cycling, running, mountain biking, etc that I do. I shoot to be at ~75-80% of my expenditure in terms of intake.

So a super sloth day where I don't leave the house I aim for ~1800 calories, and a super busy day with long training where I burn say 4000+ calories, I would eat ~3000.

In terms of "what" I eat, a fairly balanced diet, focused on vegetables, fruit, lean dairy (FF greek yogurt), eggs, some meat, beans, etc.

[trailblazer]

Thanks for the detail. I'm going to try the 12-8 part for a while. I can easily skip eating in the morning, but always want to eat between 5 and 8 p.m., no matter how much or little I ate in the AM.

[2Birds1Stone]

Give it a whirl, I was impressed with the results. Not just the weight dropping, but more so the lack of fatigue, hunger, and decreased athletic performance that I sometimes experience in a deficit such as this one (it could just be that it's early on).

I'll stretch the fast to 1-2 PM sometimes if I'm feeling good and want a bigger dinner. Usually break fast and eat about 30% of my calories for lunch, and save ~70% for dinner/snack at night.

With a big meal at night, I'm primed for a run/MTB/lift in the morning. Actually feel better as I'm not digesting my first meal during exercise.

I'm down to 206.4 lbs this morning, with my 7 day average down to 207.2

This is the lightest I've been since summer of 2014, and I would like to get to <198 by Labor Day weekend. 9.2lbs to go =P

[2Birds1Stone]

This are moving in the right direction on most fronts.

I'm down to 204.6 lbs this morning, despite my diet being off due to work travel/happy hours/dinners etc.

Received a verbal offer from the company I have been interviewing with. I verbally accepted and we will be able to formalize it middle of next week, with a target start date for the new job of August 20th.

Have an active weekend planned with a 6.2 mile run this morning and a MTB ride tomorrow. Playing handball and lifting as well. Gotta make the most of summer before I jump into the new gig.

[2Birds1Stone]

cool milestone!

August is a mystery to me. Everything is up in the air right now with work. Once things become clearer I will have a better idea of how to measure progress and set goals.

Oh yea, my 7 day rolling average for weight is down to 204.9 this morning, next monthly update I hope for it to be <200lbs

[2Birds1Stone]

I'm happy to share that I formally accepted the offer! We negotiated and I ended up exactly where I was hoping to.

This is going to be an interesting endeavor for a few reasons.

1) I'm teetering with FI already, so the $ is icing on the cake
2) The tech is really cool and fascinating, so learning will be fun
3) I'm completely outside of my comfort zone
4) I have NOTHING to lose
5) There is an equity component, which takes longer to vest than I plan to be employed (but you never know!).

[2Birds1Stone]

Things are moving along well.

My 7 day average weight is 203.0, so down 1.9lbs in the past 7 days.

I resigned at my current job over the weekend, will be prepping my replacement over the next two weeks.

SO and I are really trying to enjoy the downtime before things get crazy for both of us. Spending for August will be higher as a result. Going to do some things we will have a harder time fitting in the schedule once I start my new gig.

My fitness is getting better as I continue to regularly train with weights and run/cycle/and walk/hike daily. I am continuing to push the weight loss at 1-1.5 lbs a week, and the next 5 lbs should make a dramatic visual difference. I should also feel much better running/mountain biking being lighter.

I don't think getting any lower than 195 lbs makes sense at this time, winter is coming anyway.

[2Birds1Stone]

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[classical_Liberal]

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[2Birds1Stone]

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[2Birds1Stone]

The weather has been a roulette wheel this past weekend. We were lucky enough to get rained on this morning, and as a result my run got rained out.

I woke up to a 201.6 for the third day in a row, with my 7 day average at 202.0 this morning. -18lbs in exactly 60 days feels good! Another 5-7 to go and I'm done.

I hit the gym instead and lifted + a short and fast run at my desired 5K pace. Ran 1.25 miles @ 7:15 pace. I will continue upping the distance at that pace till I can sustain it for 22 minutes.

[2Birds1Stone]

We are looking to get an older van as a project to refit/finish and specialize for our needs.

1988-1996 primarily

GMC Vandura
Ford E-150/E-250
Dodge 1500
Chevrolet Chevy
etc....

We are looking something with good drive train and bones that needs cosmetic work. Budget is $1000-2500

The goal would be to learn skills while building something we could then take on extended road trips and camp or even stealth camp in more urban areas.

[classical_Liberal]

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